TWar

This would be exactly what I'd do. If we can get Armstrong and Danjuma in for Vest and Ings we have not dropped in quality imo as Salisu is more than ready to step up and upgrading at AM is huge for us.

I didn't say "no danger", I just said we won't be in the three most likely to go down, that six other teams will still have worse squads than us, and that there was no need to be all doom and gloom. Obviously there is always some danger. Feel like you might have read what you expected to read and not what I actually said.

Nice that we are concreting up interest. I wonder what the first bid was.

We could lose Vestergaard, Ings, JWP, and not replace any of them and we'd still have a squad as good if not better than what Norwich, Watford, Burnley, Brentford and Palace are working with right now. It's a weak league, we are currently 7th most likely to go down, I don't see the loss of Vestergaard and Ings taking us into the predicted bottom three. We lose Ings we still have Adams who is just as good as anyone any of them have up top except maybe Toney although he's fully unproven. We lose Vestergaard we still have Salisu who is better than anyone they have at CB outside of the Burnley lads. And we will replace, no need to be so doom and gloom.

I think kicking the fullback cover can down the road might not be the worst idea. We have enough issues to deal with right now so dealing with this one later on could open up more budget for this summer. Furthermore we don't know how good Perraud will be, if he plays like a world beater this season we can buy someone cheap and reliable as a second choice who won't expect to start next summer, if Perraud struggles then maybe we invest a bit more money and get someone who will displace Perraud.

I have the Gunn deal as 5m with Add-ons. I think it is £2.5 up top but that's pretty standard to pay over time. Either way, they are all just estimates we'll wait and see how they all pan out.

I think a fair value for the players we might sell would be: Ings - £20-25m Vestergaard £15-20m Gunn - £5m (gone) Lemina - £7m Elyounoussi - £6m Forster (maybe, if we find the funds for a new first choice GK) - £3m Obafemi - £5m Misc other players (Nlundulu, Long, Valery) ~ £5m (together, if we are lucky plus a few other youth products, could be as low as £2m for all) That yield an approximate budget of about £65m. Last couple of seasons we've had a net spend of £10m and £25m respectively. From this best case scenario is about £90m. Now realistically speaking we will probably struggle to shift a bunch of the above as you never sell everyone you want to so we likely will only make about £50-55m probably, and the net spend during COVID is probably going to be closer to the £10m of 2020 summer than the £25m of 2019. Given all that I estimate maybe about £60-70m. Split as, for example: £13m Perraud £15m Armstrong £10-15m Vestergaard replacement £10m back up fullback £15-20m attacking mid A couple of loans (one fullback, one striker maybe) All a bit of guesswork really. Could be less could be more, depends how we sell and whats available in the market. Wouldn't be surprised to see a loan with an obligation to push a signing onto next season too.

Armstrong probably. We can afford ~£13m on a player if we need them as shown by the Perraud transfer. We can have a small net spend and also we can sell some fringe players.

Vest has been better, just about, this season but Bednarek has been much better over the course of the last couple of years. Bednarek is a fine player, nothing special, but he will do. If Salisu is an upgrade on Vest which I think he is defensively then we are already better off than last season.

Sign someone cheap and young, preferably can cover LB or RB too. Maybe even a loan. Bednarek and Salisu should be our starters next season really, we have far bigger holes than to try and upgrade on that.

Fine, £20m and he's theres. We need the money to rebuild our attack and Salisu is better probably anyway.

Adams is well above Championship level, as shown by his 20+ goal season in a struggling side, plus a 14 goal contribution prem season despite limited minutes is a perfectly acceptable return for a midtable forward. Redmond is way above championship level, he battered Bournemouth, he just is unreliable against PL opposition hence why he is more a rotation option now being used to fill in gaps like at LWB or as a forward when Ings was injured. Stephens, McCarthy and Djenepo are perfectly good enough premier league back ups. Elyounoussi had a great season in Scotland which is above championship level, Long and N'lundulu are championship level or below but they don't even make the bench for us when all are fit and are almost certainly half way out the door.

Dragowski Macca KWP Bednarek Salisu Perraud Williams Stephens Loan CB Williams/Stephens/Loan CB JWP Romeu Diallo Jank/Smallbone Armstrong Danjuma/New AM Walcott Djenepo Adams A. Armstrong Tella Redmond That could be our team if we sell well and sign players around their value. For me I think that is a comfortable midtable side. A lot more well balanced than what we had last season. Weak spots in striker depth and RCB but nothing glaring. The whole team can't all be amazing.

I think there is a good chance we'll get an attacking mid in too. In a way this could make us a lot more balanced and less one player dependant if we roll Ings and Vest out for £40m+ and bring in a £5m CB/loan (promote Salisu), a £20m attacking mid, and a £15m Adam Armstrong. Salisu is better defensively anyway than Vest and we don't need his massive crossfield balls as much if we have quality attacking mid and Perraud to progress play.

Oh I agree, I think he is still very injury plagued. I just think he might think his injuries are better. Often players are keen to play and say they are fine when they are not, ambition I guess.

Ings when fit is better than Armstrong. When fit he is better than most prem strikers. The thing is "when fit". Armstrong is comparable to Watkins in that he scored a similar number of goals (one more for Armstrong), has a similar playstyle, and is a similar age. Armstrong managed it in a worse side which is arguably more impressive. Ings is a tonne better than Watkins imo but Watkins outscored Ings last season because he's fitter. Quality isn't everything, sometimes you need consistency. If next season Armstrong and Adams both get ~8-9 goals that's probably enough for safety if you look how much teams at the bottom score, especially when JWP can pitch in with 5 atleast, defenders with similar between them thanks to JWP's dead balls, Armstrong is good for a couple, and hopefully our new AM will be too. The issue, as @Lighthouserightly pointed out, is fixing up our defence.

Danjuma was pretty heavily linked in April and May but our ITK's have poured cold water on it since, presumably due to budget. Then again we were confident Ings would stay so now he's leaving we have a lot of wage freed up as his new contract was huge plus the difference in his transfer fee and Adam Armstrongs (about £10m I'd imagine) so I think we can look back into him. Also I think he's great and would us to have him. I would like to upgrade on Bednarek, he will be one of our weaker players next season, but I don't think he is too weak for us. He is a perfectly good lower prem CB, if Salisu steps up then we have a good midtable to top half CB pairing. Aside from that all we need is fullback depth, Ings replacement, an attacking mid and preferably a GK. With the £35-40m we get from Ings+Vest plus the £15m we will likely get from Lemina+Elyounoussi+Forster+Obafemi+N'lundulu and other we have a sum of about £55m, I expect we will have a netspend of about £15m again like we have the past couple of seasons. That leaves a transfer pot when you take off the £13m we spent on Perraud and £5m we got for Gunn of about £60m which should be fine for a £15m striker (Armstrong), a £20m attacking mind, a GK (£15m) and £10m of loan fees for fullback and CB backup. I don't want to see JWP go as a team with a completely new core often struggles. We struck gold with Koeman but it is just as likely we'd invest poorly and do a fulham.

I think I'd rather hold JWP, get £35m from Ings and Vesty (I suspect more, Vest should be atleast more than we paid for him). Bring in Armstrong (£15m), Danjuma (£20m), new GK (£15m), and promote Salisu to play next to Bednarek with a loan player for depth, be a net spend of about £10m when you factor in Perraud plus a bunch of smaller sales (Lemina, Elyounoussi, Forster et al.)

If we don't have Ings making something out of nothing we need chance creation. Armstrong or Edouard and a quality attacking mid (Danjuma/Peirera/Brais Mendes)

With Ings gone and Vestergaard almost certain to follow it would be suicide to lose JWP. We will hold on for dear life now.

Based on what? He got 29 goals in the championship last season, one more than Watkins when he came up, and he's doing great.

He failed at Liverpool due to injuries, not due to being not good enough. He probably feels, fairly enough, now he's got the injuries under control he has one last chance to have a pop at winning a starting spot in a big side and winning something. I think it's very reasonable, if a bit shit for us.

Gutting. If we get £30m for him and put it towards Armstrong + Danjuma it will numb the pain a bit though.

And Armstrong, Bednarek, and Romeu

I think Djenepo should get a season or two more chances. He's great against the ball, a good dribbler, a decent finisher, and still very young. He had that knee injury that kept niggling and I suspect it is the reason he isn't pushing on as well as he seemed he might a couple of seasons back. If he can build consistency, confidence, and get over the injury he could be a winner. Another thing worth considering is all season our left sided 10 was performing worse than out right sided 10. Even Walcott and Minimino looked better on the right than the left. I suspect one reason for this is because one had KWP making space, making good runs, playing them through, and being a menace. Bertrand couldn't do that but maybe Perraud can, could make Djenepo perform a little better as he pretty exclusively plays on the left.